t26 AN ANALYSIS OF THE FLORA OF SINAL 



Nasturtium officinale, Rosa rubiglnosa, Lamium amplexicaule, Scirpus 

 Holoschoenus, Schoenus nigricans, which would .most easily fall under the 

 ' Mid- Europe ' division; others, still fewer, as Echinospermum spino- 

 carpos, Paracaryum micranthum, Plantago ovata, belong to the ' Aralo- 

 Caspian,' and a more considerable number, of which may be instanced 

 Matthiola oxyceras, Alsine picta, Holosteum liniflorum. Astragalus 

 borhbycinis, Zozimia absynthifolia, Achillea santolina, A. -fragrantissima, 

 Kochia latifolia, belong to the Mesopotamian group. Most Mesopo- 

 tamian species, however, which range as far as Sinai have equal claims to 

 be regarded as Mediterranean, or, in some cases, as Desert ; and similarly 

 a large number of plants, several of which appear in Sinai, may be dis- 

 tributed with equal justice to a position in any of the four subdivisions of 

 the ' Oriental ' region, their real requirement being that of saline soil. 



In the following tables, a few species recorded from the ' Tih plateau,' 

 or ' Arabia Petrsea conterminous to Palestine,' are included with a mark of 

 doubt, the locality being somewhere on the northern edge of the Peninsula, 

 but possibly lying outside the boundary. 



An asterisk is appended to those names which do not appear in the 

 flora of Palestine list as given by Canon Tristram. A few probably 

 introduced plants are bracketed. 



Those printed in italic characters are peculiar to Sinai, so far as at 

 present known. Eight species considered endemic have been found 

 beyond these limits, six by me and two by Burton, since their first 

 records in Boissier. The letters End. indicate the group to which the 

 peculiar species belong. 



The groups to which I have referred the flora are Desert, Mediter- 

 ranean and Plateaux. The first two columns being devoted to the Desert 

 species, which predominate, although if the North African flora be all 

 regarded as Mediterranean, several of my Desert plants might be referred 

 to that section. 



The first column is devoted to those Desert species whose range is 

 limited to the immediately adjoining countries of Palestine, Egypt and 

 Arabia Petrsea (of which Sinai is a part), and in some cases the Syrian 

 desert. In many cases the plants of this column are almost as essentially 

 Sinaitic as the peculiar species. 



The second column incluJes Desert species with a wider range. Too 



